Unofficial Keyboard Layouts


I guess side by side is fine, just as long as the buttons have different texture.
 
If ED must place them side by side due to design/manufacturing limitations, then I suggest they do not sit completely flush to the back like on the Pandora, and that they are in a vertical orientation:  I I ------- I I , with reasonably longer vertical buttons than on the NeoGeoX.  
 
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One last coat of paint for the layout. Perhaps it will be of use. :)

Till then. 
 
A few remarks about the keyboard layout I saw at the beginning of this thread:

  • No tilde ~ means no quick home directory navigation in Linux, nor subscript in Markdown.
  • No square brackets [ ], nor accolades { } for programmers, Javascript, CSS, Markdown, LaTeX, ...
  • No backtick ` which is amply used for Markdown on StackExchange.com fora
I also noticed that a lot of the AltGr modifier places are taken up by either accented or trema (Umlaut) vowels, serving mainly the French, respectively, German writing subcommunities. Nothing against these groups, but this goes at the cost of more general characters ---like the ones mentioned above--- which may serve the whole community, French and German included.

Perhaps some inspiration to solve this keyboard real estate problem may be drawn from the Swiss (four language) keyboard layout. (Disclosure: I am not Swiss.)

The CH keyboard map is shown below as a reference. Of course, I have no objection against preferring QWERTY over QWERTZ, as the former is more universal.

Of interest is the intelligent double use of the accent/Umlaut keys, selectable via the shift key. The trick is in the fact that these vowels are rarely written in uppercase.

As a French writing person you would default to accented vowels with Umlauts via Shift, whereas the reverse would be true for a German writing person.

900px-KB_Swiss.svg.png


There also other solutions, like the Colmark and Neo layouts (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout), but these are quite a geeky.
 
GinGordon said:
A few remarks about the keyboard layout I saw at the beginning of this thread:

  • No tilde ~ means no quick home directory navigation in Linux, nor subscript in Markdown.
  • No square brackets [ ], nor accolades { } for programmers, Javascript, CSS, Markdown, LaTeX, ...
  • No backtick ` which is amply used for Markdown on StackExchange.com fora
I also noticed that a lot of the AltGr modifier places are taken up by either accented or trema (Umlaut) vowels, serving mainly the French, respectively, German writing subcommunities. Nothing against these groups, but this goes at the cost of more general characters ---like the ones mentioned above--- which may serve the whole community, French and German included.

Perhaps some inspiration to solve this keyboard real estate problem may be drawn from the Swiss (four language) keyboard layout. (Disclosure: I am not Swiss.)

The CH keyboard map is shown below as a reference. Of course, I have no objection against preferring QWERTY over QWERTZ, as the former is more universal.

Of interest is the intelligent double use of the accent/Umlaut keys, selectable via the shift key. The trick is in the fact that these vowels are rarely written in uppercase.

As a French writing person you would default to accented vowels with Umlauts via Shift, whereas the reverse would be true for a German writing person.

900px-KB_Swiss.svg.png


There also other solutions, like the Colmark and Neo layouts (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout), but these are quite a geeky.
Click to expand...
Not sure which layout you're referring to as all three of them have the three keys you suspected were missing. As for the umlauts, they are placed in the layout because the man in charge, EvilDragon, wants them to be included. 

By the way, I'll be updating my layout momentarily.
 
Okay, I updated my layout.

Some noticeable changes:

Fn is now called Sym, as it is on some small keypads out in the wild.

Compose Key is now Sym + Tab. Easy to reach and positions the thumbs where both of them need to be for the impending sequences.

C-Cedilla joins the cast of series regulars. Better than Section Sign, which two of you might miss.

Degree symbol can moonlight as diacritical mark "ring".

Under Linux, from what I've read, AltGr doesn't equate to Ctrl + Alt, so no conflicts if the user wants to combo key Start + Select or R1 + R2. AltGr really is the ideal choice for a shoulder button.

One final comment. Thought using existing symbols for the diacritic labels was an improvement, given the backlighting and limited keycap area, over  how_wb_ wanted to do it(which was good too).

Hope it works out.
 
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Minor update to my layout.

Moved the underscore symbol next to Escape. Was thinking a small buffer between the minus and plus pair, which are used often for screen font adjustment, and Escape was a good idea.

Added links to pictures of the Pyra Fosdem and Pandora keyboard layouts to the first post.

June 28, 2014

Another small update to the layout.

Switched Tilde and Grave positions to reflect the layout's general motif of primary symbol key to the left of it's matching secondary symbol key:

/ to the left of ?

' to the left of "

{ to the left of [
 
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There has been some discussion in another thread about breaking the 2 pad space bar into two buttons.  Presumably one would be space and the other would be a 3rd shift key for four layouts.  I'm calling that 3rd shift key 'Int' for now because I'm not sure what else to call it.

So - layouts would be:

1.  unshifted/normal English lower case

2.  shifted (English upper case)

3.  Sym (Symbols & brackets & function keys)  International letters (even Æ and ö) get moved to 4 (Int).  International punctuation appears here, ¿ for example.

4.  Int (International characters to encompass all of the additional letters needed for the majority of European languages without using compose)  These letters are simply accessed by pushing Int then the letter.

Part of me really likes the idea - even though I'd never have much use for the Int key.  Non-English characters would be as within reach as capitalized English characters.

Are there enough physical keys on the keyboard to encompass all of the needed international characters in upper & lower case using this method?

Any thoughts?  If we're going to split that space bar and make a 4th layout, ED's going to need to make the change very soon to the case and key mat specifications.
 
As long as any key can be remapped to any other key (including shift, return etc..) I would be very happy with this. My primary gripe has been that with a double wide space bar, I am precluded from mapping dvoark, which means my pandora gets used mostly just for browsing the internet.
 
Updated the layout.

  • Caps Lock is now Sym + Tab instead of bound to Left Shift.
  • Added a Compose key for brevity now that Spacebar is/may no longer be two key sizes.
  • Middle Mouse Click is now both Nub centers pressed concurrently.

Since we will no longer have a function "Fn" key, my stance on the matter is to call it the quite commonly used in electronics "Sym" which is apposite for the word symbol. In truth, if the key's print color matches those of the keys it modifies, we could label it anything, but I think the name should match with the role played. :)
 
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One last addendum.

Moved the Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break trio from Sym + action buttons to the following:

Sym then Shift + number 1 for Print Screen

Sym then Shift + number 2 for Scroll Lock

Sym then Shift + number 3 for Pause/Break
 
The what and why's guide of changes for both Version 1 and 2 layouts:

  • Retained the "Sym" label temporarily as I couldn't think of anything else to call the main modifier but as _wb offered, this could be the Pyra Logo, but it has to be the identical color of the punctuation marks it will be deriving.
  • Added a Kill Tasks Dialogue shortcut to the PYRA/Super key.
  • Removed keyboard backlight toggle in both versions from Sym + Dpad combo(see below text).     
  • After reading what Comradekingu and Caine said in this post about the HDMI key being unnecessary as an upper hardware key, I decided to use one of those keys above for the keyboard backlight toggle. To activate backlighting, press KeyB(a designation but not the actual name the key will be called) for level 1(lowest) key illumination. Press it again for level 2(brighter than level 1). Again for level 3(brightest). Then one last time to turn it back to off.
  • For Version 2, Escape is moved to where the "Pandora" key was. I can't think of a more suitable and out of harms way place for it. In every emulator I could find controller documentation for(Mupen64plus, PCSX-ReARMed, PPSSPP, ScummVM, etc.), there wasn't a single one of them which mapped the Pandora key. They all used Spacebar or Select for their options menu and some other combo to exit out. It's likely the same occurs in applications and homebrew. If Escape is placed where I've put it(again only in Version 2), it will still be very reachable from the keyboard section, but it goes against tradition so I don't know how well received it will be which is why there are choices.
 
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Updated the layout. Now there are two. :)

Notes:

  • Returned Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Print Screen to Sym + (Y), Sym + (B ), and Sym + (X). I want Magic SysRq commands to be possible.
  • Tilde is now next to Grave(-, +, =, _ quartet are thus closer to the left side for Ctrl -/+ zoom action).
       For off-centered Layout:

  • Tab deposes the Delete key at (II) which unseats (I)'s Insert(now under Sym + Backspace). I could move Tab to Sym + a, but I wanted a dedicated Tab key somewhere for people.
  • Left Shift may or may not be a sticky key.
 
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Saber said:
Updated the layout. Now there are two. :)

Notes:

  • Returned Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Print Screen to Sym + (Y), Sym + (B ), and Sym + (X). I want Magic SysRq commands to be possible.
  • Tilde is now next to Grave(-, +, =, _ quartet are thus closer to the left side for Ctrl -/+ zoom action).
       For off-centered Layout:

  • Tab deposes the Delete key at (II) which unseats (I)'s Insert(now under Sym + Backspace). I could move Tab to Sym + a, but I wanted a dedicated Tab key somewhere for people.
  • Left Shift may or may not be a sticky key.
Click to expand...
I would have put the Tab key replacing your shifted CAPS lock (who uses caps lock anyway?)
 
klapse said:
Saber said:
Updated the layout. Now there are two. :)

Notes:

  • Returned Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Print Screen to Sym + (Y), Sym + (B ), and Sym + (X). I want Magic SysRq commands to be possible.
  • Tilde is now next to Grave(-, +, =, _ quartet are thus closer to the left side for Ctrl -/+ zoom action).
       For off-centered Layout:

  • Tab deposes the Delete key at (II) which unseats (I)'s Insert(now under Sym + Backspace). I could move Tab to Sym + a, but I wanted a dedicated Tab key somewhere for people.
  • Left Shift may or may not be a sticky key.
Click to expand...
I would have put the Tab key replacing your shifted CAPS lock (who uses caps lock anyway?)
Click to expand...
After a tiny bit of research (read: Wikipedia), apparently it was made for typewriters, for typewriter keys were stiff and difficult to hold down for the time necessary to type your capitals.  However, I don't see it being at all useful for the Pyra, especially since we have Shift on the shoulder buttons. 

-Glyph Reader
 
Glyph Reader said:
After a tiny bit of research (read: Wikipedia), apparently it was made for typewriters, for typewriter keys were stiff and difficult to hold down for the time necessary to type your capitals. However, I don't see it being at all useful for the Pyra, especially since we have Shift on the shoulder buttons.
Click to expand...

Capslock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock and the Pause button even if they seems defunct, they do have some uses in DOS/Windows/old computer emulation or even some uses in current Linux applications.. So I vote not to ditch these buttons completely.. 
 
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For old computer emulation, they all have weird keyboards, so will need a certain amount of remapping anyway. I don't see anyone calling for a copy key or a pound/underscore key for BBC micro emulation. DOS/Windows is more of an argument, but since they have more keys than us on an AT keyboard, there'll need to be a soft keyboard for the extra keys anyway, or extra hard-to-remember key combinations.
 
Added a new second layout.

Notes:

  • For Version 1, moved Caps Lock to Sym + Compose key.
  • For Version 1 and 2, rearranged  - + = _ group to _ - + =.
Version 2 features:

  • Two Sym keys on the keyboard.
  • Comma, Period, and several other marks are on the right side.
  • Punctuation occupy first two rows to reduce searching for common keys.
  • Letters are centered for balanced thumb text input.
This new layout does not require two Sym keys to work comfortably as the one right Sym(called Fn on Pandora) key would be enough. Left Sym key(and maybe Compose) could be remapped to desirably different keys.  
 
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Updated the layout again.

Changes are in first post(link in my sig).
 
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